For Sarasota, revised noise rules with 'teeth'

Tough new rules, and clearer language, could be added to the city's noise ordinance this year in an effort to quell disputes between downtown condo residents and nightclubs.

The revised noise ordinance, to be considered by the City Commission in coming weeks, would add steeper fines for “chronic offenders” and clarify the rules for police responding to complaints. The City Commission had asked for the new ordinance last year, following another cycle of public debate between condo residents and nightclubs that make competing claims on downtown's identity but sometimes share the same building.

Condominium residents are long accustomed to making police complaints about loud music emanating from downtown bars.

But in frustration over enforcement, they have in the past year resorted to lobbying City Hall to close businesses down based on dubious claims of code violations.

Club owners, working with police, have said they are bending over backwards to accommodate their neighbors, and that some of the complaints are baseless.

City Commissioner Paul Caragiulo has tried to lead efforts to reform the city's noise policies but said the challenge was far more difficult than he first imagined.

“This was an emotionally exhausting issue for the last year,” he said. “The whole point of this is: 'What's reasonable?' ”

That can be, philosophically, a hard question to answer.

Part of the difficulty has been the wildly different subjective experiences of residents, club operators, police and patrons. They have found that, to some extent, noise is in the ear of the beholder.

But one thing almost everyone agreed on last year was that the noise ordinance was confusing and hard for police to enforce. Caragiulo said he had no part in drafting the new ordinance, but thinks it goes a long way toward a rational city policy on noise.

The new language in the ordinance is meant to clear up apparent contradictions and adds a “chronic offender” clause that Caragiulo said “really adds teeth” to enforcement efforts. It also will use a “plainly audible” standard for noise that was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

The chronic offender clause requires those cited with noise complaints to meet with city staff to plan steps to correct problems.

If they fail to do so, they can be fined $1,000, facing $5,000 and $15,000 fines on repeat offenses.

But if condo residents and nightclub owners agreed on their dissatisfaction with the old ordinance, some also have in common a skepticism about the new one.

One thing that the ordinance can't be expected to fix is the general antipathy that many condo residents have toward the nightclubs. Their complaints about the bars often go beyond noise, voicing also their perceptions of bar patrons' behavior inside and outside the clubs.

One downtown resident already has protested the new ordinance to commissioners. Cheryl Walker, of the 100 Central Ave. building, said she doesn't have any issues with noise downtown. But she still is concerned that the city is being too lenient toward nightclubs and fears that they will someday dominate the neighborhood.

“We want to make sure it remains the city we have,” Walker said.

That is the sort of opposition facing Ambrish Piare, owner of the Ivory Lounge, 1413 Main St. The Ivory Lounge shares space with condos at 50 Central Ave., and Piare said he has been driven to distraction trying to keep the peace between his club and its upstairs neighbors.

Piare said he welcomes rewriting the ordinance but is also doubtful that the changes will be enough to stop the complaints he regularly receives.

“In many areas the definitions are still very unclear,” he said. “Until the whole model changes, from reactive to proactive and from unfounded complaints to actual facts, any change made to the sound ordinance is doomed to fail again.”

City Attorney Bob Fournier said he will explain the new rules in a public hearing soon, before it is voted on by the City Commission.

He has delayed doing so as he prepares to respond to the many inquiries he has already received from residents.